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I first wrote about Lowcountry Boil in 2005, when I shared that the dish was originally known as Frogmore Stew, named for the small St. Helena Island hamlet where it was created in the early 1960’s by Richard Gay, one of the owners of the area’s Gay Fish Company. However, in the 1980’s, the postal service eliminated the name Frogmore and the stew became more widely known as Lowcountry Boil, sometimes referred to as Beaufort Stew. The quintessential lowcountry “from the field and sea, to pot” dish, comprised of shrimp, spicy smoked sausage links, shucked fresh corn and potatoes, is a crowd pleaser and a great alternative to the backyard barbecue for events such as Fourth of July celebrations. Lowcountry Boil is traditionally served with fresh baked corn bread and coleslaw and the recipes here for Charlotte Ward’s “So Good Coleslaw” (there’s none better) and Mini Corn Bread Loaves are those you have told me are your favorites. It’s also nice to have cocktail sauce and lemon for the shrimp, melted butter for the corn and some sour cream for the potatoes, if you wish. Add a cooler of cold beer, a couple of pitchers of sweet iced tea (recipe follows) and some well-chilled slices of watermelon for dessert, and your beginning-of-summer feast is ready to roll.

Sue Ade is a syndicated food writer with broad experience and interest in the culinary arts. She has worked and resided in the Lowcountry of South Carolina since 1985 and may be reached at kitchenade@yahoo.com.